The following is the 16th of the COVID-19 reflections written primarily for those parishioners who would normally take part in our weekly Bible Study. Sadly, those meetings have been suspended, at least for a while. I hope you find these reflections of some value, and, during these difficult times, I encourage you all to find creative ways to fulfill God's command to love Him and your neighbor. God's peace...
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Aristotle once described happiness as "that which all men seek." He also observed that what we do, day in and day out, is what we believe will bring us happiness in one form or another. Of course, the obvious problem is we are so often wrong. What we hope will bring happiness usually doesn't. For example, many seek happiness in alcohol or drugs or gambling or sexual gratification and instead find only addiction, pain, damaged relationships, and lives spiraling out of control. The result? Lost jobs, destroyed families, and shattered lives.
Yes, everyone seeks happiness, but so often we look for it in all the wrong
places. Good old Aristotle recognized this. He described the ethical
person as one who knows and does that which leads to true and lasting
happiness. Others seek happiness by striving to attain wealth or power. This, too, always fails. Ultimately, the promised happiness is at best short-lived.
Now,
another word for true and lasting happiness is “blessedness” or “beatitude,”
something about which Jesus often spoke. And when He spoke, He turned the world
of His listeners upside-down. Can you imagine what the people of Galilee
thought as they sat on that mountainside and listened to the opening words of
the Sermon on the Mount? Heck, just imagine what the people of today would
think.
Jesus
began with the Beatitudes [Mt 5:3-12], eight declarations of true happiness, of
what it means to be blessed. And that’s what they were: declarations. They
weren’t commands. Jesus was just offering the Galileans and us the basics of
true happiness. Later on, in that same sermon, He’s more specific about how we
must live if we are to be His disciples. But right now, He just lays the
groundwork, but that’s enough to upset the Galileans’ world (and ours).
It
doesn’t take much time or brainpower to figure out that Jesus’ message is the
exact opposite of the world’s message, and the world’s message hasn’t really
changed in 2,000 years. The contrast is so very evident.
·
Blessed are the poor in spirit -- Happy
are the rich and prosperous, those who believe they have no need of the Spirit.
·
Blessed are they who mourn -- Happy are they
who avoid unpleasantness, who consider mourning psychologically unhealthy.
·
Blessed are the meek -- Happy are the clever
and ambitious, the newsmakers, the celebrities, those who look out for number
one.
·
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness -- Happy
are those whose personal ambition always outweighs justice and truth.
·
Blessed are the merciful -- Happy are the
powerful, those who crush their enemies, who see mercy as weakness.
·
Blessed are the pure of heart -- Happy
are those who reject holiness, who use and abuse others for their personal
satisfaction and pleasure.
·
Blessed are the peacemakers -- Happy
are those who use aggression and violence to achieve the ends they seek.
·
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake -- Happy
are those who never accept responsibility for their actions, who believe the
persecuted have only themselves to blame.
But
that’s not all. Jesus concludes the Beatitudes with one more blessing, and this
one’s different because it’s personal. No longer is it “they” or “them.” No,
this time Jesus speaks in the first person and He speaks directly to you and to
me:
“Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and
utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me” [Mt 5:11].
Jesus
then promises that from this blessing will come a reward, actually the bounty
of all these blessings, these beatitudes. And it’s not an earthly, but a
heavenly reward.
“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in
heaven” [Mt 5:12].
These
are not easy words to accept, for we’ve been programmed by the world to seek
happiness and rewards right here on earth. Indeed, the world’s message is
really quite simple: Focus only on yourself and all will go well. This is the
message that bombards you and me, our children, and our grandchildren. It
attacks us via a thousand different channels, all day, every day. It was really
no different on that day in Galilee so long ago. It may be delivered today
via a multitude of different media, but the message hasn’t changed.
Of
course, it’s a lie – a clever, insidious lie because it sounds
so reasonable, so believable, so true. After all, if I win $100
million playing Power Ball, how could I be anything but happy? I’ve known quite
a few millionaires, and even a billionaire or two, and they’ve all suffered
from various forms of unhappiness. Eventually, they come to realize that all
those possessions, and everything they’ve accomplished have little true meaning,
that all could, and eventually will, disappear in the single beat of a heart.
One
acquaintance, who focused solely on his work and became fabulously wealthy,
found himself bored, lonely, depressed, and deeply unhappy at the age of 40.
His wife divorced him, he had sold his company, and for the first time in his
life, he had no direction. I couldn’t help but wonder who was happier, he or a Franciscan
friend of mine who has absolutely nothing…
So
many, deceived by the world's empty promises, haven't yet figured it all out.
They know something is terribly wrong in their lives, but they can neither
define nor repair it. Fortunately, our God knows what's wrong, for He sees into
each human heart. His Son provides the solution, but it's so counterintuitive,
so out of this world (so heavenly?), that few are willing to accept it. The
thought of abandoning everything in which we've come to believe, including
ourselves, and turning in faith to the only source of true happiness...well,
for so many that's just not an option, at least not yet. As one very earthly
friend said to me, “Maybe on my deathbed...”
But
Jesus tells us it's the only option. We’ll be happy only if we’re willing to
embrace poverty and sorrow, only if we’re meek and obedient, only if our
hunger and thirst for justice moves us to tend to the hungry and thirsty in our
midst, only if we welcome strangers, only if we visit and care for the sick and
imprisoned. We’ll be happy, He tells us, when we show mercy, when we make
peace, when we suffer persecution.
How
many of us actually choose such things? How would you like to receive
poverty, sorrow, and hunger as birthday gifts? But this is exactly
what the Lord asks of us, exactly what we encounter in the Beatitudes. And
hidden within them, underlying each of the Beatitudes, is a single virtue, one
that is urged on us throughout Sacred Scripture. It’s a virtue the world
silently abhors while pretending to value it: the virtue of humility.
Here,
for example, are the words of Zephaniah, whose brief book of prophecy is worth
the occasional reading:
“Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who have
observed His law; seek justice, seek humility…But I will leave as a remnant in
your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the
Lord: the remnant of Israel [Zeph 2:3, 3:12].
Do
you detect a foreshadowing of the Beatitudes in Zephaniah’s words? And do you
see the importance God places on the virtue of humility? It is, in a very real
sense, the foundational virtue which supports other virtues. Humility is a
saving virtue.
St.
Paul, writing to the Christians of Corinth, echoes this as he describes God’s
choice of disciples:
“Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were
wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the
weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of
the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are
something, so that no human being might boast before God. It is due to Him that
you are in Jesus Christ, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Whoever
boasts, should boast in the Lord’” [1 Cor 1:26-31].
Yes,
indeed, “as it is written…” Paul’s last line about boasting repeats and expands
on the Word of the Lord preached by the prophet Jeremiah:
“Let not the wise boast of his wisdom, nor the strong boast
of his strength, nor the rich man boast of his riches; but rather let those who
boast, boast of this, that in their prudence they know me, know that I, the
Lord, act with fidelity, justice, and integrity on earth” [Jer 9:22-23].
Jeremiah
preached these words during a most difficult time for God’s People, during the
reign of Jehoiakim, the second son of King Josiah. Jehoiakim was a tyrant whose
incompetence probably hastened the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent
Babylonian captivity.
But
as we read Jeremiah’s words, we clearly see his influence on Paul. God chooses
whomever He pleases. To demonstrate His power, He chooses the “lowly and
despised” rather than the wise, the strong, or the rich. And who in Jeremiah’s
day could be more lowly, more despised, than the survivors being led away from
their homes into captivity in pagan Babylon?
We
are, then, called to humility, a virtue greatly misunderstood today. Too often humility
is equated with a kind of self-deprecation in which the human person has little
or no value. But this isn’t true humility. True humility is how we see
ourselves in relationship to the rest of reality.
True
humility looks first at the world from God’s perspective; one that accepts His
creation as good. Everything, from dirt to galaxies, from rattlesnakes to
human beings -- all of it is good. And humanity is the crown of that good creation.
Now,
some people believe that because of original sin, because we are sinners, we
can’t possibly consider ourselves good. But God never retracts His
declaration of creative goodness. Indeed, scripture tells us that sin couldn’t
destroy the core goodness of God’s ongoing creation:
“God…gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in
Him…might have eternal life” [Jn 3:16].
God
wouldn’t do that for garbage. He doesn’t consider us worthless because His
own goodness is in us. Ours might be a goodness marred by sin and crippled by
evil, but it’s nevertheless His goodness.
True
humility, then, helps us recognize the dignity of humanity and the goodness of
God’s creation. It helps us recognize our own dignity and value, as well as the
equal dignity and value of others. True humility reminds us that every speck of
our dignity and value comes not from ourselves but is a gift from
God. Everything is a gift!
This
morning I heard a reporter describe a successful businessman as a “self-made”
man. But there’s really no such person. Certainly, we can achieve
things, but underlying all the human effort are the gifts, the talents, and the
opportunities that come only from God. True humility also leads us to
accept that the unrecognized hands of others are often behind the situations
that bring about the good in our lives.
To
be humble, then, is to recognize who we are in relationship with God and with
others. Humility leads us to thanksgiving for the value God places on us, and
to the recognition that everyone has equal value, from the murderer on death
row to the millionaire in Palm Beach, from the unborn baby in the womb to the
homeless alcoholic begging for your spare change.
True
humility leads us to realize that if God values us so highly, we too must value
each other. This is where humility and the Beatitudes come together.
Humility
-- the recognition of God’s gift of goodness in each one of us – drives us to
carry God’s love, to carry His peace and justice, to all those others in
our lives, regardless of how the world values (or devalues) them..
Only
through humility can we exchange our “me-first” attitude for a “God-first”
attitude.
Only
through humility can we be obedient and meek in God’s presence, as we strive to
conform ourselves to His will.
Only
through humility can we join ourselves with those who mourn and share
in their burden.
Only
through humility can we love those who are poor because we know our
possessions can never equal another’s dignity.
And
only through humility can we accept that God’s mercy demands mercy from us.
Yes,
brothers and sisters, the arrogant and the proud won’t bring about God’s
kingdom. The humble will lead the way. These aren’t my words. They’re right out
of the Sermon on the Mount. They’re God’s Word.
And
so, as we struggle through this challenging time, let’s vow to make these days
a time of real change; for that’s what the word, repent, means – to
re-think, to change one’s mind or purpose. For most of us, the greatest
change is to develop a true humility, to become like Jesus Himself, the Son of
God who lowered Himself to become one of us. Let’s make Him the center of our
lives.
And
believe me; this will turn your world upside down and lead you to lasting
happiness.
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